None of these technical projects are of any
relevance to the executive conversation.

If these topics are at the core of
discussions at the executive level, then rest assured the company is already
busy drowning in hundreds of underperforming technical projects, and probably
not linked to corporate strategy.

In other words, a bottom-up approach to
digital transformation will always be vulnerable to the technocrats over-complicating
and over-detailing the requisite work, at the cost of achieving digital
transformation.

The solution is for the executive to be
pretty clear about why they approved a digital transformation in the first
place. You would expect this to be articulated in terms of production stability,
production optimization, product quality, overhead/cost reduction, output
volume optimization, and improved customer delivery and satisfaction.

The executive conversation must be a clear
referencing of digital transformation in terms of strategic imperatives – not
in terms of technical project schedules. It is the executive’s obligation to
protect their strategic integrity. It is not for the technical levels to
interpret it for them.

Gideon Malherbe

Gideon Malherbe is a partner of VCI Ltd, a global strategy design company. Gideon is well known for his development and implementation of unique methodologies and strategic insights that deliver truly extraordinary results to clients. As a visionary, Gideon has orchestrated some of the largest strategy, innovation, and digitization projects in the Mining & Metals and Oil & Gas industries, the results of which have become enduring models worldwide.